Down to the wire

By: jon | October 19th, 2008

Our season has come down to this: cheering for Chicago and New England. Makes you wonder what you’re doing with your life, doesn’t it? Now, as I’ve stated before in posts and in comments, I’m of two minds on what I’d prefer to occur this week.

Do we, A) eek into the playoffs, lose early, lose late, or somehow win with a $300k ball chained to our collective ankle or B) lose, or be eliminated by two victories by NY and KC, and make real changes that need to be made in order for this team to compete in all competitions next year?

There is of course the middle ground I’m neglecting to mention here, that we do well in the playoffs, and still make some changes for next year. But, in my sports watching experience, I’ve come to notice that when a team makes the playoffs and reaps the financial benefits of those extra games, they are less likely to address the real, and sometimes costly decisions that need to be made. In my mind, I’m hoping for a merciful end to this injury plagued “season” and for a number of changes to be made this offseason. What changes? Funny you should ask…

1) Fire Tom Soehn.
Injuries happen, that’s fine. Not his fault. But on numerous occasions, the team quit on him. Other times, he showed unwillingness to alter strategy either out of fear of catastrophe or maybe he didn’t know what else to do. He was short handed much of the season, so I could be convinced that he can get a 4 game stretch at the beginning of next season to show his stuff, but I’d like a successor ready to assume the role should shit hit fan yet again.
2) Pawn our $300k gold plated ankle weight.
Again, injuries. I’ve heard the arguments. But guess what? He’s old, he’s injury prone, and he’s not getting any cheaper or more impervious to injury. Some might argue that Benny is in a similar situation, but he’s much cheaper. His departure leaves a hole in the team that only can be solved by…
3) Bring back Christian Gomez.
He’s riding the pine pony in Colorado. I’m going to bet he didn’t forget how to play immediately. Think he’d rather play for less money, or waste away the last years of his prime on a crap team in a city where people don’t care about soccer? I think it can be done.
4) Spend some money/time, and make smart draft picks.
Maybe we need to get rid of Dave Kasper and steal the FO’s of New England or Houston, but our draftees have been garbage. I’d buy it if it was only 1 year of poor choices, but we’re nearing Matt Millen-esque territory.
5) Blackmail the DC Council, or become drop the DC from United
The time for talk is over. In this next year, I want golden shovels in the dirt. I don’t care where that happens anymore.
6) Protect Santino in the Expansion draft.
At the conclusion of the season I’ll have a full rundown on this, but for now, Quaranta is too good of a bargain to let go. For his production, relative durability and overall inspirational qualities, Tino has proved his worth to the squad, and deserves the stability of a longer term deal. This guy was/maybe still is USMNT caliber, and we need to keep him.
7) Assess the goalkeeping situation
Louis Crayton is pretty good. Is he great? I don’t think so. Is he worth being the 2nd highest paid keeper? No. Show Wells the door or send him to the shrink and find out why he’s such a shrinking Daisy. I like him (in the minority there), and think he still has some value to the team. Loan out Thorpe to a USL side.
Make a decision on the flying Gonzalos.
The juries out here, but Martinez has been the more stable and dependable Gonzalo, so I’d bet he’d stay. Peralta (who I ran into at Kettler Iceplex) showed some mental lapses over the season and was injury prone. I’d give him some time, but I wouldn’t pencil him in as THE CB.
9) The Emilio conundrum
Ready for this? Here’s my solution to this. Sign Emilio to a 1 year contact at the DP level, wait for him to hit one of his streaks, hopefully while we’re playing a Mexican side in CONCACAF, and sell him. This is contingent on our ability to have a replacement ready (can you say, Shevchenko?), but he’s entirely too hot and cold to depend on anymore.
10) The ageless wonder
Sign Moreno to another year. Unless we can clone El Diablo, Moreno IS DC United’s offense, and as long as he can walk, hold the ball up, and pass it, he’s on this team. If you can give him unlimited free headbands instead of money, that’d be excellent, but I’m not holding my breath.